NEW YORK - For a while, it seemed the sky was the limit for the grand public works that sprang off the drawing boards during New York's recovery from the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Lately, though, soaring ambition has given way to hard reality.

Over the past few months, officials worried about high construction costs have scaled back some of their ambitious plans for rebuilding the city.

The latest casualty: a magnificent, glass-domed building that was to crown a redesigned subway hub near Wall Street.

The crystalline structure had been billed as a civic gem - a downtown Grand Central Station - and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority had already knocked down half a block to build it. This past week, however, the agency reluctantly axed the building, saying they couldn't do it within the project's $900 million budget.